High temperatures make data center managers break out in cold sweats. Even though the thermostat may read a comfortable 76ºF, customers at colocation facilities say, “There must be a problem here, this room is so hot.”
An occupational privilege I never take for granted is access to a variety of organization’s strategic charters and the senior executives who define them. My last column looked at Tim Caulfield’s journey to CEO of American Internet Service (AIS) in San Diego, CA.
Is putting end-users first a business philosophy
or a design philosophy, or both? Saying that end-users come first is easy, but
system designers and equipment suppliers find that putting end-users first can
be hard to do.
Data center managers are under the gun. Companies realize that to compete in the global marketplace, they need a strong data center to back them up. This puts the role of the data center manager front and center, as he holds the key to increasing infrastructure performance, cutting operational costs, and maximizing data center and power efficiencies.
Will our growing reliance on all varieties of
digital information coupled with the recent extraordinary natural disasters,
deliberate assaults on IT infrastructure, and the increased obsolescence of the
electric grid lead to the perfect storm on steroids?